Don't mind me, I'm just playing through…

Category Archives: WoW

Over on twitter today, @RhoWoW suggested people participate in @Alternativechat‘s 10 Years, 10 Questions writing… thing (challenge? exercise?? event?!?). It seems like a cool thing to do to reflect on the last however many years I’ve played WoW and write about it. Plus, it gets me blogging/writing. Something I’ve been struggling with for awhile now. So here goes!!

1. Why did you start playing Warcraft?
I was a huge EverQuest player. Top-end guild. Break-neck raiding. WoW came out in the middle of all of this and was very popular, very quickly. I picked up WoW on a whim, to see if I would like it. In the middle of playing a TON of EQ, I found that WoW was too different for me at that time. I picked it up again a few years later because of @Kurnmogh.

2. What was the first ever character you rolled?
A Night Elf priest. I think I named her after my EQ character (despite how different and unrelated they were).

3. Which factors determined your faction choice in game?
When I first picked up WoW, the only factor was character models. I wanted to be cute and pretty! Night Elfs were this choice at the time. Later, when I made Hestiah, I was limited to which classes could be druids, the class I wanted to play. I will never forget Kurn’s rants about druids being in the wrong spec and how expensive it was for them to respec (before the days of dual-spec). She said that the druids were the worst because they could never make up their damn minds and stick with a spec!

4. What has been your most memorable moment in Warcraft and why?
This is a hard one. There are so many. But I think running around Southshore with Kurn and Daey and her ranting about murlocs is up there. Lots of death and laughing and corpse running. I also think questing for my Warlock epic mount is up there. That was so much trouble, and so ridiculous. I am SO glad I did it. Even once.

Raiding has also been fun. Killing Lich King and getting the title. Doing “Herald of the Titans”. Killing tough heroic bosses. Getting meta mounts. [What a Long Strange Trip It’s Been]. Too many to list, really.

5. What is your favourite aspect of the game and has this always been the case?
I dunno that there is any one thing that is my favorite, but probably the social aspects. I have made some of the best friendships because of WoW. Friendships that well surpassed any “it’s just a game” situations. Some friendships have remained, some have been lost. But the one thing that always kept me coming back were the people playing.

6. Do you have an area in game that you always return to?
Nagrand. Darkshore. And Badlands. Nagrand is just so pretty. It makes me smile to go there and sit on a floating rock. Darkshore has a lot of story that I miss. And a lot of story that I still enjoy. Grimclaw will make me cry every. single. time. (I blame @_Rades for this! *shakes angry fist*). And Badlands because of [Rhea’s Egg] questline. I have a lot of love for that egg.

7. How long have you /played and has that been continuous?
I played a month in Vanilla, though I have no clue when (month-wise) that it was. And came back at the end-ish of BC. I got dragged along on some raids and was generally awful. Then again about midway through WotLK. Since then I’ve been mostly consistent. played most of Cata. Most of MoP. And will be around for WoD.

8. Admit it: do you read quest text or not?
Usually, no. I speed through most of it without paying any attention. Except for some questlines/stories. I love the Grimclaw stuff in Darkshore. And I love the Rhea’s egg stuff in Badlands.

9. Are there any regrets from your time in game?
Some of the guilds I joined were instantly regret moves. Some people I befriended and trusted. But these have little to do with WoW and more to do with personal interactions (ie. me).

The only real regret are the friendships I let lapse for some reason or another. The time I spent playing too much and not doing schoolwork or work-work. I have few regrets.

10. What effect has Warcraft had on your life outside gaming?
This is probably the most personal question, which yields the most profound answers. Warcraft has introduced me to some of the most amazing people. Friends who became my family. Boyfriends. Loves. Enemies. Acquaintances. All of them have had some impact on my life, one way or another.

Many friends have lasted years. There are inside jokes. Similar complaints. Talking about the mechanics of a heroic boss fight that annoys you the most. Achievements you’re farming. Company you have in doing really silly, grindy stuff. I got to know the people. Their lives. Their struggles. Their joys. Their hardships. Their accomplishments, in game and out of game.

I wouldn’t trade any of that in.

It always means I get the strangest looks from people. Folks who don,’t understand that internet friendships are real friendships. Who question my sanity when I say I’m meeting someone from off the internet. Or that I live on twitter and no I will not let you friend me there or on Facebook. That there is a whole other part of me that exists that has nothing to do with business casual attire and welfare benefits and jobs and such. When I do talk about that part of my life, it’s interesting to see who is secretly judging me and writing me off and who feels like they’ve meet a friend for the first time.

My time in WoW has helped me be a better person, even if I falter from the pedestal of my own creation. I’ve learned to accept that I’m not good at all things. How to accept constructive criticism. How to engage in difficult conversations in a more productive manner. I probably would have learned these things eventually, but it was my interactions (failed and successful) with people I knew because of WoW that made me reflect on myself more.

My murloc ringtone post continues to be my most visited post from all over the place, so I thought that I would do a series of ringtone posts! Today I’m releasing a set of ringtones for what I hope is all devices. I can’t guarantee that they will work, but I sure as hell hope they do. Since Apple has as specific file, please make sure you’re careful to download that version, while the rest will get the mp3 version of the sound clips.

The original set of Professor Putricide ringtones came about because I was mentioned on twitter as having made some baby murloc ringtones. I offered to make some, and in a few minutes I created them. But then I thought, maybe I should make some more! It was the first time I had actually heard Professor Putricide’s sound bytes, so I was laughing hysterically as I heard everything he said. I went ahead and made some more short files and a couple more longer files.

I tried to find some fun short ones that people could use for text or email notifications, as well as a handful of longer ones that people can use for phone calls.

Instructions for how to add the files to your iTunes and subsequently your phone are listed below. All other devices, I’m sorry, you’re going to have to google it or check with your phone manufacturer to see how to do it. But at least you have the sound files!

Also please let me know if there are any ringtones you’d like me to try to create in the comments!

Open the zip file and unzip the files somewhere where you can find it.

Open iTunes –>
Drag and drop the files under Tones -OR-
Click “File” –>
Click “Add File to Library” –>
Locate where you saved the files –>
Click the first item, hold Shift and click the third item (to highlight all 3 ringtones) –>
Click “Open”

This should import them to your iTunes Library.

Once you see them in your Tones list, click the first Baby Murloc ringtone, hold Shift and click the third Baby Murloc ringtone (to highlight all three again) –>
Right-Click –>
Click “Consolidate Files…” –>
Click “Consolidate” (This step creates a copy of your ringtones where iTunes would innately save them so that if you delete the downloaded files, you don’t lose the ringtone.)

What started off as a handful of us lamenting on twitter about the frustrating aspects of various guilds that drove us away from wanting to be associated with them (some more severe than others, mind you) eventually became me sitting down with Nyxy and Aero and putting a plan in motion. Seerail acquired a level 25 guild and set the ball rolling to get GMship and get ready to transfer it over… but where?

I took a few days to look at a few core things that were mandatory and necessary for picking a realm. Not a single one of us were happy with our current realms and all of us were willing to go elsewhere. Once a realm was decided upon based on population, economy, and how many anal jokes and/or references to Thunderfury occurred in 30-40 minutes (none at the time when I was logged in) we started transferring toons over.

We decided on a guild name. We discussed some guild policies that were mandatory. We talked about days and times for raiding and the sort of atmosphere we wanted while raiding.

And I set about writing all of those policies up. I admit to being a bit of a control freak, but I was utterly grateful that Aero decided to take the helm of running the whole operation. Then Nyxy and I hit the final stretch to our quarters in school, her with having real finals, and me with having lots of papers to write, things were put on the back-burner. It also felt really overwhelming, to try to predict and decide how to make it all work.

But, in the end, we created <From Behind>, and as of now we are actively recruiting for people to help us fill all roles for a 10m team. We’re looking to raid from 6:30pm – 9:30pm Pacific (-8 GMT) on Tuesday and Friday nights for main progression type raids, and Sunday’s will be semi-optional previous tier/gear farming type stuff.

We really and truly want the person behind the toon much more than the class and spec they are bringing to the table. Definitely check out the guild site and don’t be afraid to chat with any of us on Twitter or in game!

We want to get started with raiding as quickly as possible, but this might mean we’re running some CRZ T14 raids in the meantime to get some gear. So come, join us, and have some fun!